Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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The host of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition said, “Joe Biden is known to carry a rosary in his pocket and to go to Mass every Sunday. If elected, he would be only the second Catholic president in American history ... his faith is central to how he sees the world.” Sister Carol Keehan, former CEO of the Catholic Health Association, told NPR that “when Joe Biden talks about faith, he talks very much about things like the Gospel of Matthew.”

Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, which is owned by the Washington Post, the chair of Hong Kong Watch said that “the Chinese Communist Party knows how to make use of what Lenin described as ‘useful idiots.’ Mao was adept at using ‘fellow travellers.’ When you have Vatican officials extolling the virtues of Chinese communism, as the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, did when he described it as the best example of Catholic Social Teaching, it is evident that the Vatican has provided Beijing with both useful idiots and fellow travellers.”

“Two years on, it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party’s depredations,” writes US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, in a column appearing on the First Things web site. Pompeo argues that the Holy See should show moral leadership by pressing Beijing to recognize religious liberty and other fundamental human rights.

At St. Carthage’s Cathedral Parish in Lismore, (map), “the sacristy sustained damage as a result of the fire, but not the main part of the cathedral,” according to the report. Bishop Gregory Homeming, OCD, said, “I’m not disturbed by what has happened, it’s a building and I thank God that no one was injured.”

Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, in the northern Indian state of Punjab (map), has stepped down from his duties during the criminal proceedings but remains the diocese’s bishop.

“A nurse who is a practicing Apostolic Pentecostal Christian was hired by Wellpath to work in the GEO Central Texas Correctional Facility in downtown San Antonio,” according to the EEOC. “Before reporting to work, the nurse told a Wellpath human resources employee that her religious beliefs require her to dress modestly and to wear a scrub skirt instead of scrub pants while at work. In response, Wellpath denied the request for her religion-based accommodation and rescinded the nurse’s job offer.”

Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, 66, was apostolic nuncio to Panama (2005-08) and Bolivia (2008-17) before being named nuncio to India and Nepal in 2017. Pope Francis appointed him apostolic nuncio to Brazil on August 29; his transfer to the nation with the largest Catholic population suggests that the Pope has strong confidence in his work.